2015 Bond Election

UPDATE: At its Aug. 13 meeting, the city council decided to forego a bond election and fund various transportation projects and the design of a new police station with certificates of obligation. The FY16 budget will include funding to research options for a community center. Projects not funded this year through COs — such as the construction of new police and fire stations and a community center — could be part of a November 2016 bond election.

What will College Station look like in 10 years? And what major projects – roads, facilities and parks – are required to best meet our needs in 2025?

With growth come challenges related to mobility, infrastructure and quality-of-life amenities. Identifying and prioritizing our future needs are difficult tasks, but efforts are underway to do just that.

We Start with Citizens

In August 2014, the College Station City Council established a Capital Improvement Project Citizen Advisory Committee in preparation for a possible November 2015 bond election. The 23-member volunteer committee's mission was to recommend transportation, facility and park projects for the council to consider placing on the ballot.

The committee set out to not only address what the city must have, but also what it should have. Essentially, the committee was responsible for helping determine how our built environment will look by 2025. Some of the questions the committee sought to answer included:

Which streets should be built or expanded to increase capacity and improve mobility?

Would certain new streets facilitate economic development?

Should we build new facilities or expand existing ones?

What type of recreation and leisure facilities should we have?

The city’s last general obligation bond election in 2008 was on a seven-year schedule for project completion. However, the city council has requested that the 2015 bond issue be completed on a five-year schedule.

On May 28, the committee presented its final list of recommendations to the council, which will decide in August whether to have the bond election and what projects to include.